Tags:

Text Size

-

+

reset

With the help of Joe Wilson and Mark Sanford, the state emerges as a beachhead for the president's most aggressive conservative critics.
AP photo composite by POLITICO

Dawson agreed, citing the state's long and tempestuous political history as a mark of pride: "South Carolina's been yelling from the top of our lungs on national politics since this nation was formed and entered the union."

Obama himself is no stranger to the state's hothouse political culture—one of his favorite stories from the campaign trail, which he retold as recently as Monday, took place at a campaign stop in Greenwood, South Carolina. There, a city council member introduced one of the campaign's most famous slogans when she warmed up Obama's crowd with a feisty chant of "Fired up! Ready to go!"

But even if swaggering politicians and impassioned oratory aren't entirely new to South Carolina, some Democrats say there's a newly harsh tone to public debate there. As the temperature of the conservative base has heated up, so too has the pressure on GOP politicians to become more vocal in their criticism of the president—and they've amped up their rhetoric accordingly.

"South Carolina has always had a reputation of being polite and courteous," said former Democratic Gov. Richard Riley, who served as education secretary in the Clinton administration. "In the past, we've always had a very aggressive, conservative group in South Carolina, but to my knowledge it had always been, basically, polite."

Members of both parties have expressed dismay at the kind of attention Wilson's comment brought to South Carolina - a new embarrassment, some said, on top of an already distressing summer, thanks to the sex scandal that extinguished Sanford's rising star. The state GOP's increasingly caustic tone, some Democrats said, was particularly troubling due to South Carolina's troubled racial history.

"The Republican Party in South Carolina is well steeped in the dark arts of racial politics and I think that Obama's election is particularly galling to some in that party," said Phil Noble, head of the South Carolina New Democrats, an independent reform group. "There are many in that party for whom simply the idea, much less the reality, of a black president is very painful."

Yet there’s evidence that it's not simply Obama who is the target of fired-up South Carolina conservatives. And their frustration isn't even limited to Democrats. Rep. Bob Inglis, a Republican from the Greenville-Spartanburg region, is finding out the hard way that his once-reliably conservative voting record doesn’t grant him immunity from the state's hunger for red-meat politicking.

Inglis has jeopardized his political fortunes by bucking the party line recently on issues ranging from climate change to Iraq to the Pledge of Allegiance. In August, when Inglis told a town hall audience to "turn that television off" when popular conservative talk show host Glenn Beck appears on the screen, the crowd erupted in fury. He is currently facing a crowded GOP primary field in 2010.

Haynes, a former chief of staff to Inglis, suggested that the president's chief South Carolina critics may be responding, in part, to the kind of pressure officeholders like Inglis are feeling back home.

"People have always thought of Joe Wilson as a good, party-line, thoughtful guy. These are not guys who have been thought of as bomb-throwers," he said. "They're conservative, all stretch of the imagination, but they're not anybody who has a long history of grabbing headlines, saying and doing outrageous things."

For now, it remains an open question whether this trend toward the sensational will prove to be a recipe for spinning conservative gold or for producing political poison that turns off Democrats, independents and the state's rapidly-growing population of transplants from other, less conservative regions.

"There is an angst out there and there is a climate of fear right now," Dawson said. "That confusion and chaos creates opportunity."

Readers' Comments (723)

Whats the matter with South Carolina....many in South Crolina still think the should have won the Civil War. Many of its residents share the ideology that certain ppl should stay in their place. They want to blame all of Americas's ills on immigrants.

Whats the matter with South Carolina....many in South Crolina still think the should have won the Civil War. Many of its residents share the ideology that certain ppl should stay in their place. They want to blame all of Americas's ills on immigrants.

I wish Representative Wilson hadn't done it, but as the more I think about it it's less offensive that somebody yelling "Goddamn America" from the pulpit.

Like it or not Wilson "stood up" before the government, his colleagues, a good portion of the American people and God, and told all of us but particularly Mr. Obama what he thought. Maybe more of us should try that.

He exercised his most precious right to express his honest opinion. Hard to fault him for that.

Instead of what's the matter with SC, your headline should have read :

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ACORN; WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH DC FUNDING THIS ORGANIZATION WITH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN STIMULUS MONEY

ACORN Outdoes Itself ACORN helps set up a supposed brothel.

I thought I'd heard every possible charge about corruption at ACORN, a feisty, union-backed activist group that became infamous last year when it was investigated for voter registration fraud in 15 states. Just yesterday, 11 ACORN workers were accused by Florida prosecutors of falsifying information on some 900 voter registration forms.

But this morning brings a Fox News report that ACORN officials in Baltimore offered to help get a housing loan and falsify tax documents for a proposed house of prostitution that would employ underage girls from El Salvador. The episode was captured on tape by an undercover filmmaker, James O'Keefe, who wanted to see just how far ACORN would go. Watching the tape -- which can be seen at Biggovernment.com -- is a creepy experience. ACORN itself has told Fox News the episode represents "gotcha journalism" but wouldn't comment further until it sees the full tape.

In helping Mr. O'Keefe set up his supposed brothel, ACORN employees also invited him to attend an August conference the group was holding for prospective home-buyers. But it linked attendance to Mr. O'Keefe joining ACORN and paying $120 in annual dues: "We ask that you join ACORN." The problem is that such a request is illegal, since the ACORN housing conferences are underwritten by federal government grants. ACORN has a political arm, so insisting that attendees at its housing conferences join the group and pay dues is a no-no.

It was precisely that kind of activity that got ACORN in trouble during the Clinton administration. The Inspector General of AmeriCorps, the government's volunteer agency, accused the group of "using government resources to promote legislation." ACORN was stripped of its federal grant as a result.

This past March, Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, tried to block ACORN from receiving additional federal funds when he proposed restrictions on federal support of the group. Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Senator whose state hosts the office featured in the undercover video reported by Fox, dismissed the idea: "I think this is an amendment that has no purpose and has Draconian consequences if passed." The Senate voted against Mr. Vitter's amendment by 53 to 43, with only two Democrats -- Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia --voting to restrict ACORN funding.

In light of the Fox video, Mr. Vitter should revive his amendment -- pronto.

South Carolina nurtures barbarians. In 1846, Sen. John C. Calhoun (SC) denounced the annual production of statistics and information about farming as "one of the most enormous abuses under this government."

What's the matter with South Carolina? Hmm interesting. Let's see Change South Carolina to New York, & Elliott Spitzer, Charlie Rangle. Connecticut, Chris Dodd & "Friends of Angel". And the coup de gras, Illinois with Blagovich, Rezco, Acorn, Obama, & Emanuel!! As for South Carolina, Congressman Wilson is actually a Patrick Henry. Debate his “You Lie” charge and discover whom is truthful. Take a look at the Transcript or video from Zeros’s town hall in July and observe how many times he states the crisis of “46 million uninsured American citizens.” I his September 10, speech where he used the joint session format as a prop, Zero stated 30 million. No, South Carolina is just fine. The question is; what’s wrong with the Fourth Estate? America was failed, no vetting was done on Zero and the corrupt condition still persists.

Seams the whole message of 9/11 has changed over the 8 yrs. Something is dreadfully wrong with DC and its transcending into US through them.

SC is a emotional red state so what, all those who donated to Wilsons campaign yesterday just threw their money up into the wind before doing their homework. Sounds just like a whole other group of people we get on here a b**ch about all the time now doesnt it.

Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 37.7% Democrats, 32.7% Republicans, and 29.6% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.

Wilson’s notorious “You lie!” outburst in front of a joint session of Congress, was just the latest in the series of salvos, this one coming as Obama claimed his health care reform plan wouldn't offer free care to illegal immigrants.

Wilson’s notorious “You lie!” outburst in front of a joint session of Congress, was just the latest in the series of salvos, this one coming as Obama claimed his health care reform plan wouldn't offer free care to illegal immigrants.